Whenever I've had the opportunity to speak at them, and they have a question and answer session at the end, some of the questions that I've most often been asked is:

"How do you have fun when your sober?"What do you do for fun when your sober?""How can you have fun while you're not drinking?"

I very well remember being a newcomer... asking myself the same questions! "Gees... how am I going to have fun in life... sober?"

Hopefully, everyone will jump on to this topic with a reply!

Tonight... I'll be down at our local Blues Fest... listening to the music, enjoying the laughter, the excitement, the lights, the fun, the frolic and the food! I'll probably take my camera and hope for some good interesting sober photos to take! And, I'll take a couple of AA friends with me... so that I don't get too selfish with all the fun and forget to share some of it with them!

Then, on the way home... I'll stop to pick up some special puppy treats, so that I can surprize my dogs with an exciting late-night puppy party! They always enjoy those. And, it helps me deal with the guilt of not taking them with me... so that they could have fun barking at everyone!

I'm right there with you on the concerts, Dallas ~ I love music and can enjoy it on a deeper level now that I'm sober. Last summer we saw Little Feat at an outdoor setting near-by and after the show I remarked to my husband "I'm sure glad I finally got to see Little Feat". He said, "Anne, we've seen them twice before." It sure makes a world of difference when I remember the concert. This summer we saw Dr. John & The Neville Bros., in the Spring we saw Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt, and next month we are going to see David Bromberg.

Same with Broadway shows ~ we've been going to one or two shows a year since we're married, 21 years ago. Difference is, now I enjoy them and remember them. Used to be that I'd be itching for the performance to be over so we could get out of there and hit the bar across the street. Coupla times, when I was still drinking, we'd arrive in the City a bit early so we'd stop at a bar before the show to kill time. Once I started drinking, I would have forfeited the expensive tickets for the show right across the street and just sat there and continued to drink, if my husband didn't have the good sense to pull me out of there.

I've gone back to college in sobriety to get my degree, and I enjoy learning.

I love exercising, I work out every morning before work, I bike ride on the weekends, I take yoga lessons.

I love socializing and laughing with friends.

The beach, swimming, kayaking, tubing, water-related fun is awesome.

I love creative outlets as well ~ I've taken a pottery class, a painting class, and a drawing class.

Vacations are lots of fun, also ~ week after next we'll be in Boston and Cape Cod and I can't wait!

Geez, Dallas, just about everything is fun these days because the weight of the world has been lifted off of my shoulders and I am freeeeee!

I have fun taking those mangy dawgs for longer walks. I like to watch them race with each other. They're real competitive and their fun to watch. One is a like a border, and the other plays keep away, and they can run and play until their tongues touch the ground. 8 legs of pure entertainment! (That is, of course, when I'm not cussing or fussing at them for being stupid - but I think that's entertaining to some of my neighbors)

I get to having fun when I work. I know that sounds silly. But I do things like fix people's cars in their back yards, and I also fix computers at people's homes, but not as much lately. This is outside my regular job. When I go to work for a friend, or a friend of a friend, or somebody who gets my number from a satisfied customer, I always have fun. To me, its fun because I get a lot out of the fellowship. While I'm working, my customers always talk and share their time with me. I guess I must look like I need comapny (you know it's that missing good looks thing - wish I was as cute as Dallas!). And another thing that's a blessing is they always will share a meal with me, and drink some coffee or Gatorade with me as I'm working. I do work for some older folks, and some have disabilities, so I don't charge an arm and a leg. Then I gets my grub on too. And I get paid. Now that is having fun to me. I don't always have a true enjoyment out of the work itself, but because of the fellowship, I walk away being filled in body and in spirit, and I make new friends. That is real fun for me.

Then I do this part time thing on eBay. I learned how to buy and sell fine porcelain figures and statues, and the like. I didn't know anything about fine porcelain, but now I can spot it in a second. I mean brands like Lladro, Wallendorf, Armani, Schaubach, and many more that I didn't know squat about. I just kinda fell into it. So I'll go to a garage sale, or to an estate sale, and I'll find rare porcelain, and I'll get it for pennies on the dollar. Then I just sell it on eBay, and boy folks really love porcelain. So its a hobby that just came out of nowhere, and it pays good, and I don't have to do anything to the porcelain but take pictures...it just sells itself. But now, I did lots of reading, and learned the history of some if this stuff and it is down-right interesting altogether to me.

See before I didn't give a crap about things like this...if it wasn't greasy or rusty, or you didn't need a wrench to fix it, it was sissy stuff. But what these little porcelain figures have taught me is a lot about beauty. I can go into a persons home, rich or poor, and I look at their porcelain, and I can strike up a talk. And the better the brand of porcelain they have, then I look at the rest of their house and how they decorated it, and I learn how people express their own ideas of beauty.

I appreciate looking at how somebody has put their heart into decorating their homes. And the fun part is, if you don't mention anything, they won't either. But if I say that's a beautiful Lladro, for example, they light up! Then they just go ahead and spill their life story out on me, and show me and tell me about other things, and I just shut up and listen because thats what AA taught me, and besides I'm not the most sophisticated man on earth and I don't want to look any dummer than I already look. But I'll walk away knowing more about beautiful things and about how people think and express themself through their decorating their own surroundings.

Then I take that knowledge home with me. I'll tidy up my house and all, but then I throw in a couple of these porcelain statues here and there, or I'll get a big plant, and I'll stick them around the house just like I see them in other people's houses. And you know what? It makes my house look beautiful. I'll get a friend over and they'll say how the heck can you do this, and the only thing I know about you is that you can take apart a Mossburg in no time. Or they laugh cause they see me up to my shoulders in grease because I fix my own cars. Or sometimes theres just something funny to laugh about like I leave a distributor cap on my fireplace mantle, and its sitting next to a $500 Armani statue of a ballerina.

So I guess you can say that I have fun with beautiful things, but I also can play around in the horse poop and have fun too. But it's ALL there because I have a God of my understanding, and the "design for living that really works" given to me as a gift in Sobriety. And yes "Sobriety" is capitalized on purpose because it is something that came from God to a unsophisticated drunkard who blacks out and pees on himself, and can't hang onto a nickel if it had fishooks, when he picks up a drink.

This gift is the funnest thing that I know of, and I pray you all have as much fun, or more than me. I tell you what, I wouldn't trade my life with any of you, it's just too good and too much fun every day. But I hope your life is good too.

That was an awesome share. Nice to know more about you, and how you enjoy your Sobriety. That's really cool about the statues, too!

Reading your share causes me to reflect on how often I can look at someone, or listen to them, in one setting... and know absolutely nothing about what they are really like.... until I get the opportunity to know them better.

One of my favorite hobbys is people watching! Just finding a comfortable seat and observing people.

And, hey Anniemac!

Wow!!! You do some really cool stuff, too!

Thank you for sharing all that neat stuff about yourself and what you do to have fun and enjoy your Sobriety!

We're definitely not a "glum lot"!

If I were a new person, or an alcoholic that was looking into the possibility of Sobriety.... from reading both of your posts... you would have my attention!!!! I would want to know more! And, if I had been sober for a while... and wasn't having much fun in life with my Sobriety... reading about the two of you... and what you do for fun... would definitely give me some ideas!

What do you do for fun when your sober? Good topic Dallas! I picked up where I left off before the bottle got me. I just started doing things I used to do. Unfortunately its 25 years later, and I do not do it as well.

I started keeping bees ten years ago, and my honey business suffered while in addiction. Now that I am sober, I am slowly rebuilding it. It takes time, and I am very well aware of that concept! I also started refurbing a 1952 farm tractor. It sat for 25 years, and I got it running quite well. It could function as a working tractor now, but I just will use it to keep the grass mowed on the farm, and skidding logs for firewood. I may plow the garden too.

As far as having fun fun, I can have fun with new found AA friends. I find, that the more people I meet, the more opportunities I have to create fun. We had an AA dance in the end of May. I am not a dancer, my wife and I had a good time talking and laughing in a sober atmosphere.

I went to a wedding in July, and had a good time with people who were not drinking. Its all a matter of how you look at it. When I drank, I thought everybody drank. Now sober, I find alot of people do not drink, and tend to lead very active lives. I have been migrating that way since I got sober. My days are completely full, yet I have time to do AA things as well. I get more things done before 10 AM than I did all day while drinking.

Recovery fun is something that everybody should concentrate on. As a GSR, then district officer, I have been involved in variuos events, which includes the planning and implementing of ideas. Thiskeeps AA in perspective as far as reaching out. My latest venture is prison meetings. I just received clearance, and need to get a photo ID made tonight. I should be able to go in tonight. Keeping involved will strenghten your sobriety and create so many other opportunities for fun!

So in conclusion.....Fun is all in how you look at it. If you are open to different things, you will not be able to stop having fun in a sober and safe way.

I am a devoted swimmer. Now that I am sober (at least from substance abuse...I am battling sexual addiction at the moment) I thoroughly enjoy swimming and training for a triathlon. I find that swimming gives me a little endomorphine charge the elevates my mood. It's also put me in good physical condition and given me a muscular structure that has increased my metabolism and made me more youthful (increased stamina, no age related aches and pains, etc).

I chaired our begginer meeting tonight and this topic was a huge success, so thank you!

When I was new all I did was wait to relapse .It took a while to get some other hobbies other then cleaning up the wreckage.

Today I do a lot of work around the house,painted and floors last year, I have been back in school almost the whole time I've been in recovery, also meetings and lately helping a few new guys with the steps,

i don't no where i found the time or money for drinking?

it is nice to be part of a small group, because i get to be really busy in the group, in my last group it was so big I only got to chair once or twice per year.

I started riding a dirt bike at 8 months sober, age 46. What a blast! The desert landscapes I ride through along trails and jeeptracks around here are so beautiful. I've been to remote and stunning places I never could have gotten to any other way. It's been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

It takes a lot of work and energy to load up, travel, ride, and maintain my bike, so I attribute my passion to this all to sobriety. I never would have had the energy otherwise!

I've also gotten involved in a lifelong interest that I never "had the time" or energy to pursue: working on my motorcycle, car and truck. Since I work at my computer for a living, wrenching in the garage is a wonderful and welcome change, and very interesting to me.

By the way, I've found with riding my dirtbike and working on engines, brakes, suspension, etc. something very similar to what I first discovered in the Program. And that is, if you reach out and ask for help, others will show you the way. It's amazing how much I've learned in less than two years just by asking.

Recovery and what I've learned in the Program have opened up so many new worlds to me and allowed me to get to know and enjoy other people in ways that were impossible for me before. I love the Program!

There aren't many things that I enjoy in life, I reckon thats why I drank, because I could hide out in my house and slip into oblivion.

While I was sitting here I asked myself, what is fun for you, Julie? Then I thought about how much I love horses and how it would be neat to take my vodka money, about $100.00 a week IF I drank at home, and invest it in some time with a horse. I know there is a place up the road from me where they actually rent horses so I'm fixin' to go check that out.

Being so new to sobriety this is a really good topic becuz I think, oh gosh, what am I going to do NOW???? I've found myself sleeping a lot because I'm so depressed not drinking. ( I was depressed drinking too, LOL)

Last Sunday I went and fed the homeless, it's the most selfless thing I've done in over two years and I truly enjoyed that. I love helping others and will continue to join this group next Sunday morning.

Sorry to see this subject died out so quickly, but what I did read lifted my spirits.

Thanks for digging this one out. It's an oldie but goodie! I still wrench today - but I work more on my house than I do cars or computers. I still have the dogs, but somehow they aren't as mangy anymore And there isn't anymore oddball decorations like distributor caps on my fireplace mantle. Those things found their rightful place in my garage! Since then, I had a girl live with me for a while that showed me a thing or two about how to make a house a home.

Horses are beautiful, Julie. To me they're like big dogs. In fact my relatives have a word that describes horses as "holy dogs" in our language. My daughter used to ride, and when she did, I'd go with her and I learned how to be friends with horses. Clean them, groom them, feed them. walk them. They are sweet animals, and they all have funny and unique personalities just like dogs.

I'm really glad you're here with us. When you take away the alcohol from an alcoholic, we get restless, irritable, and discontented pretty fast. The only way I found to get over that is to put my heart into this fellowship and work that suggested program of recovery every today I get.

There is some way cool events in sobriety that you can find, and look forward to. Founders Day is a blast, and those AA dances are a lot more fun than I thought they'd ever be at first. If you find yourself a "running buddy", you will learn a new meaning of that phrase "our personal adventures before AND AFTER". My buddy Mike and me get into some pretty crazy situations. Just this last Saturday we were crusing Akron on Saturday night. Mike pulls off the road as though he found "Mecca".

We go in and its this retro-pyschodelic coffee shop that I never knew exisisted smack dab in downtown Akron which I thought they rolled up the sidewalks at 8:30PM on Saturdays. It was so "far out" and a blast from the past. There even was this young kid from the college playing his accoustic guitar. It was so much fun like going into a time machine.

But now yours truly originally planned that we wer going to an AA party that I was sure I heard another buddy say was last Saturday. We drive 30 miles to this ritzy suburb called Brecksville, and it turns out it was the invisble man's party, and he invited all his invisble friends. But Mike is such a wildman/goofball that he knows how to have a good time peeling potatoes. It really REALLY gets to be fun when you find a running buddy to go to meetings with or just go out and goof around.